Keegan Dark returns to the the heart of California’s winery valleys to make peace with his long-estranged family. Instead, he finds a harrowing mystery that endangers his family’s lives and livelihood.
The Dark Place (2014)
Watch on other sites:
User review – Imdb
Long estranged from his widowed mother, Keegan Dark is blessed with the uncanny ability to remember his life in videographic detail. However, this strange ability keeps him at odds with his family and loved ones.
Returning home with his boyfriend in the hopes of making amends, he’s shocked to discover that his mother has remarried and that his new sibilings aren’t very trustworthy. His investigation into their past is derailed when his mother drops into a coma, his boyfriend seemingly leaves him and the town’s sheriff targets him as the most likely culprit. With allies scarce and time running out, Keegan must fight – and use his remarkable mind – to unravel the secrets that threaten to destroy him.
Shot in Hillsboro and Portland, Oregon, USA, this film has played several festivals and was back in theaters earlier this year before being released on streaming services.
Sean Paul Lockhart, who plays Jake Bishop in the film, has had a pretty interesting life. Under the names Brent Corrigan and Fox Ryder, he acted in adult films for several years before working in mainstream movies like Chillerama and directed the movie Triple Cross.
His first boyfriend introduced a 17-year-old Lockhart into the gay adult industry by acting in a scene with him while Bryan Kocis, the owner of Cobra Video watched. His first contract called for Lockhart to appear in six sex scenes and one non-sex scene in exchange for a used Volkswagen Jetta, a set of tires and rims, transportation costs, vehicle insurance, and money for gasoline.
Kocis and Lockhart dated for a short time and there was litigation over his stage name. On January 24, 2007, Kocis was killed by two Virginia Beach male escorts, Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes. He was stabbed 28 times before his throat was cut, nearly decapitating him. Then, his home was set ablaze and dental records had to be used to identify the body. His computer survived and was used to idientify the men who killed him.
The murder and trials were turned into a book called Cobra Killer: Gay Porn Murder, a play named Cruel Men: In The Lion’s Den and a movie entitled King Cobra.
Anyways – The Dark Place is a decent enough mystery with an interesting hook for its protagonist.
